Rimrock Opera presents Strauss’ ‘Die Fledermaus’ at ABT

JACI WEBB Of The Gazette Staff | Posted: Thursday, March 16, 2006 11:00 pm When Rimrock Opera founder Doug Nagel set out to produce “Die Fledermaus,” he was looking for a lighter touch.

“We had three tragedies in a row; every leading lady in the last three croaked and I thought ‘It’s time for a lighter opera,’ ” Nagel said. “I picked the English translation by Marcie Stapp because the dialogue is so funny.”

Nagel, who serves as stage director for the opera, pulled in some Billings natives to perform in the opera, including tenor Gennard Lombardozzi, a West High graduate, in the role of Alfred and soprano Alissa Rose, a Senior High graduate, in the role of Adele. Nagel also asked longtime music teacher and opera performer Edward Harris to write a verse for one of the songs.

Valery Ryvkin conducts and Susan Wadsworth is orchestra manager. Ryvkin is artistic director of the Santa Barbara Opera and Greensboro Opera Company and has conducted previous operas for the Rimrock Opera Company.

“Die Fledermaus,” which translates to “flying mouse,” recreates colorful scenes of late 19th century Vienna. Strauss became the most popular of all waltz composers and was best known for “Die Fledermaus.” Even his harshest critics were impressed with this spirited opera that helped ease the tension of the times. And in 1899 when Strauss died of pneumonia at the age of 74, one supporter wrote, “Johann’s demise signifies the end of happy times in Vienna.” The opera opens with Gabriel von Eisenstein being sentenced to prison for eight days for using abusive language to a policeman. As he and his wife prepare him for prison, his good friend Dr. Falke arrives to talk him into attending a costume party. Von Eisenstein decides to postpone his surrender to the authorities until the next day so that he can enjoy a night of glorious revelry, wine, women and song.

Dr. Falke spends the rest of the opera trying to get even with von Eisenstein for abandoning him in a park after the costume party. Falke wakes up the next morning still in his bat costume and the whole city ends up calling him “Dr. Bat.”

DAVID GRUBBS/Gazette Staff Susan Gundunas, left, in the role of Rosalinde, and Alissa Rose, as Adele, will perform in Rimrock Opera Company’s production of “Die Fledermaus.” Gazette photo by David Grubbs.

Rose’s vocal talents to grace both ROC, Chorale performances

JACI WEBB Of The Gazette Staff | Posted: Thursday, March 16, 2006 11:00 pm Alissa Rose said she knew she was home again when someone recognized her at last weekend’s OperaFest. “It was someone I had gone to grade school with,” Rose said. Before the month is over, several thousand Billings folks will get even more acquainted with Rose when she plays two big roles in major productions.

Saturday night, Rose will debut as a vocal soloist with the Billings Symphony Orchestra and Chorale when they perform Haydn’s “The Creation,” and next weekend, the Billings native will perform her third opera with the Rimrock Opera Company.

Preparing for two major roles simultaneously is nothing new to Rose, who once performed “The Creation” the week after she performed in “Le Nozze di Figaro.” “You have to be careful not to overdo,” she said. “I’ll do marking in rehearsals where you don’t sing with your full voice or you sing an octave lower.” Rose said she already had a role in “Die Fledermaus” when she auditioned as a soloist in “The Creation.” When she discovered the performances were a week apart, she hesitated, but only briefly.

“It’s always fun to sing for the hometown audience,” Rose said. “People here still remember when I played Annie at BST when I was 13 or 14.”

These days, Rose is more likely to be performing opera than musical comedies. She’s traveled all over the world to sing opera, including roles in “Carmen” and “Die Zauberflote.” In Billings, she has performed as Gretel in “Hansel and Gretel” and as a shepherd boy in “Tosca.” Her role as the maid Adele in “Die Fledermaus” is the first adult role she’s landed in Billings. At 30, she still looks and sings like a young girl — a gift, she calls it.

“It’s nice that my voice fits my face,” she said.

Rose began as a French horn player and made her initial debut with the Billings Symphony Orchestra as a teenage horn player. Her first year in college, she switched to voice and now she’s pursuing a doctorate in voice at the University of Michigan. Rose made her first opera recording in January performing in “Signor Deluso” by Thomas Pasatieri. The recording will be released this summer.

‘Die Fledermaus’ a joy to see

It can turn old friends into conniving con men and their victims into blubbering fools. We sense its tug almost immediately in Rimrock Opera Company’s production of Johann Strauss’ operetta “Die Fledermaus.” And by the final act Friday night, the intricacies of one man’s scheme to get even became so involved and amusing, it felt as if we’d all signed on as accomplices.

Rimrock Opera’s artistic director, Douglas Nagel, said he chose a lighter opera after the last three tragedies in which the leading ladies croaked. This operetta finishes with the entire cast still breathing.

Some standout performances included local baritone Bret Weston as Frank, the prison warden, and Billings natives Alissa Rose as the chamber maid and Gennard Lombardozzi as Alfred. Lombardozzi was as much fun to watch, slinking around the stage as Rosalinda’s smarmy former lover Alfred, as he was to listen to.

“If only he wouldn’t sing,” Rosalinda tells us as she struggles to keep her distance from Alfred. “It’s bad enough that he speaks French.”

Rose’s portrayal of the cunning chamber maid who seeks higher standing in the world is brash in all the right places. She has some of the wittiest lyrics in this show, and she nails them one ridiculous rhyme after another.

We’ve come to expect a polished performance from the Rimrock Opera Company set off by flashy costumes and extravagant sets. (In this opera, the sets were flown in from New York and the costumes from Utah). But Nagel went beyond the usual, commissioning longtime opera performer Edward Harris to write Montana-inspired lyrics in a piece sung by Prince Orlofsky (played by contralto Victoria Hart) in Act II.

Harris shows off with references to Rocky Mountain oysters and Montanans’ propensity for despising taxes and laws.

Directed by Valery Rynkin, “Die Fledermaus” features soprano Susan Gundunas as Rosalinda, tenor Daniel Ebbers as her husband Gabriel, and baritone Kelly Margraf as Dr. Falke. All displayed versatility as comic actors and fine vocalists. The physical humor intensified in the final act, especially when Venture Theatre Executive Director Mace Archer took on his first opera role as the drunken prison guard. Improvising as he went, he punched up the role with his slapstick humor.

Throughout this three-hour production there is, of course, dancing. After all, Strauss is remembered as the waltz king. But my favorite dance sequences weren’t the ballroom scenes with serene waltzes, but the quirky trios of leg-kicking characters belting out their convoluted state of affairs.